What could the pioneering Jamaican band, whose ebullient ska music helped lay the foundation for reggae, have in common with the pioneering Motown vocal group, which in February received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989?

The answer, sadly, is death.

Make that, multiple deaths.

Both groups were officially launched in the early 1960s — in Kingston and Detroit, respectively.

Both groups proved enormously influential, with The Temptations soon joining The Four Tops, The Supremes and The Miracles at the forefront of the Motown Records-fueled pop-soul revolution.

The Skatalites, meanwhile, almost single-handedly created ska, the brassy, upbeat, rhythmically infectious style in turn begot the proto-reggae hybrid known as rock-steady. The band went on to collaborate with such seminal reggae artists as Jimmy Cliff, Toots and The Maytals and Bob Marley & The Wailers.

The Skatalites’ clipped, calypso-inspired beats, syncopated mento bass lines, punchy, jazz-fueled brass arrangements and New Orleans R&B-styled guitar and keyboard riffs influenced No Doubt, UB40, the Specials, Hepcat, San Diego’s Buck-O-Nine and other bands on either side of the Atlantic.

Today, The Skatalites and The Temptations continue to tour and perform, even though each group now only has a single surviving original member in its respective lineup.

For The Temptations, the sole survivor is Otis Williams.

For The Skatalites, who perform tonight at the all-ages World Beat Center in Balboa Park and Friday at Tijuana’s 18-and-up Black Box, alto saxophonist Lester Sterling has that distinction. All of the band’s eight other co-founders are deceased (the first, trombonist Don Drummond, died in 1969, the most recent, drummer Lloyd Knibb in 2011).

Undaunted, Sterling soldiers on, at 77, the lone member of a proud musical legacy. He currently leads an eight-man lineup of The Skatlites, which also features veteran singer Doreen Shaffer. Together, they pay tribute to a band that helped to profoundly change music in Jamaica, and — by extension — much of the world.